Traffic cones are a ubiquitous sight upon the nation's roadways whether they are being used, for example, to visually indicate to motorists either the presence of a construction site, to delineate and separate moving lanes of traffic from roadside work zones, to close particular street regions to oncoming traffic, or the like. As is well known, a supply of traffic cones is usually carried upon a roadwork truck or vehicle operated either by means of a local government agency or a subcontractor organization hired by the local government, and as is often the case, the traffic cones are manually deposited or placed upon the particular roadway by means of operator or workmen personnel who take individual traffic cones from a supply of such cones carried upon the roadwork truck or vehicle and place the individual traffic cones upon the roadway surface at predeterminedly spaced intervals along the particular route being travelled by the roadwork truck or vehicle. In accordance with one mode of operation, the operator or workmen personnel may be positioned upon one side of the roadwork truck or vehicle, and while effectively hanging onto, for example, a rail member, or similar support, of the roadwork truck or vehicle by means of one arm, the operator or workman places a traffic cone onto the roadway with his or her other arm. Alternatively, an individual operator or workman will often sit upon a rear bed, deck, or platform portion of the roadwork vehicle or truck so as to be capable of periodically depositing the traffic cones along the roadway as the roadwork vehicle or truck moves along the particular route along which the traffic cones are to be deposited.
As can readily be appreciated, the aforenoted well-known modes of operation present significant safety problems for the operators or workmen personnel in that the operators or workmen personnel are disposed in precarious positions or orientations upon the roadwork truck or vehicle. Incidents have in fact occurred, for example, during such traffic cone placement or deposition operations, wherein workmen or operator personnel have accidentally fallen from the trucks or vehicles and have either suffered serious injuries, or even worse, have suffered injuries which have proven to be fatal. These situations are not of course entirely unanticipated in view of the fact that sometimes unexpected events occur during movement of the roadwork truck or vehicle alongside ongoing traffic. These events may cause, for example, the particular roadwork truck or vehicle to undergo somewhat sudden movements comprising a change in direction, necessary braking or acceleration, or the like. In addition, it is sometimes difficult for the workmen personnel or operators to simultaneously pick up and then properly control the disposition and placement of the traffic cones onto the roadway surface in view of the fact that each traffic cone weighs at least ten pounds depending upon the particular cone and its size. All of such movements, and the weight force inherent to each traffic cone, can cause destabilizing forces to effectively be impressed upon or transmitted to the operators or workmen personnel which can of course lead to the afore-noted unfortunate injury or death situations to occur as a result of an operator or workman either losing his or her balance, or losing his or her hand-held grip upon the truck or vehicle support structure. Still further, the constant lifting and manipulation of the traffic cones is not ergonomically desirable from a health point of view for the operators or workmen personnel.
In a similar manner, once the traffic cones, which have previously been set or deposited at predeterminedly spaced locations of the roadway surface in accordance with predeterminedly timed sequences, are no longer needed, due for example, to the fact that the particular construction or roadwork has been completed, or that the need to close particular street regions to oncoming traffic is no longer required, then the traffic cones must obviously be retrieved or removed from the roadway surface. As was the case with the procedures or modes of operation by means of which the traffic cones were set or deposited onto the roadway surfaces, conventional retrieval or removal procedures practiced by roadwork operators or workmen personnel have likewise not been able to be achieved in a manner which is relatively safe for the operators or workman personnel. For example, in connection with the removal or retrieval of the traffic cones from the roadway surfaces, operators or workmen personnel have conventionally walked behind the roadwork truck or vehicle and manually loaded the traffic cones back onto the rear bed or deck region of the truck. Obviously, such a mode of operation exposes the operators or workmen personnel to dangers presented by means of ongoing vehicular traffic which are passing the construction or work zones within adjacent traffic lanes. In addition, as was the case with the manual deposition of the traffic cones onto the roadway surfaces, the constant lifting and manipulation of the traffic cones is not ergonomically desirable from a health point of view for the operators or workmen personnel.
In order to overcome such operational drawbacks characteristic of manual procedures for retrieving and removing traffic cones from roadway surfaces, several automated systems have been proposed such as those systems disclosed, for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,948 which issued to Calvert on Dec. 12, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,498 which issued to Velinsky et al. on May 2, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,334 which issued to Akita et al. on Sep. 14, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,464 which issued to Nicholson et al. on May 25, 1993, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,648 which issued to Luoma on Oct. 8, 1991. While all of such disclosed systems comprise implements for removing the traffic cones from the roadway surface, several of such systems comprise several integrated systems which effectively render the overall system extremely complex. In addition, none of such systems comprise, in effect, a single implement for not only removing the traffic cones from the roadway surface, but in addition, for stacking the retrieved traffic cones into nested groups for simplifying storage of the traffic cones.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved device, mechanism, system, or apparatus for automatically retrieving and removing traffic cones from roadway surfaces, and for stacking the removed traffic cones within nested arrangements so as to efficiently store the same, wherein as a result of the provision of such a system or apparatus, the operators or workmen personnel are not exposed to the dangers of oncoming traffic, and wherein the traffic cones can be readily, easily, and efficiently retrieved and removed without adversely affecting the workmen or operator personnel from an ergonomically healthful and non-fatiguing point of view.